"But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

Saturday, February 07, 2009

The importance of marriage

(First of all, this was not my original idea. It came from my friend Laura who lives here and is responsible for a dorm of 5-10 year old boys. You can check out her blog at http://clearlyliving.blogspot.com . Thank you for your creativity Laura!)

Purity

That is the topic we are about to cover in discipleship with the older girls.

Being pure in God, living lives to glorify the Lord, becoming pure through His cleansing us and molding us into His likeness.

To start off our topic, Rachel and I decided to have a wedding, and clear up a common misconception here, that once you have kids together, you are considered husband and wife. Never mind the marriage, the covenant before God.

In Mozambique, in order to get married, most couples of many expenses to consider. The groom will have to pay the "Lobola" (the bridal price, set by the Father of the bride). This could include several crates of refrescos (pop/soda), money, cows or goats, and capalanas (the traditional fabric here, used as wrap skirts, baby slings, blankets, and many other uses). They will also have to afford a wedding, and a celebration feast. The feast will not just be for the wedding guests, but any neighbors or people that want to come could show up and must be fed! Because of lack of money, often people just live together, sometimes for many, many years, but never make the important commitment of getting married.

We had a wedding to explain what marriage is, and the significance of different parts of the wedding.

Please join us for the wedding ceremony!...

Fiona and Dito were our pretend Bride and Groom!

They did a fantastic job. Fiona borrowed a real wedding dress, and Dito wore a tie and dress shoes!

Some of the wedding guests (i.e. the girl's discipleship group).

They LOVED the wedding, and participated in singing and making it a real African celebration!

Dito presented the Lobola to Fiona's "father", Estevao. Age 6.

We asked if he approved of Dito marrying his daughter, and he said Yes. What a relief!

Fiona and Estevao, waiting for Dito to present the Lobola.

They exchanged rings, said their vows, cut the cake, and everyone had cake and punch to celebrate!

Dito made sure the girls understood this was NOT a real wedding, and they were NOT really married! :-)

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Who I am and what I do

Welcome! We are Josiah and Anna - newlyweds following God together. We are starting up a small business to sell some of our handmade treasures for your enjoyment and use. We hope you enjoy checking out what we are up to, and we invite you to check back often for new posts and items for sale!